I am considering flooding 50 acres of corn but I have no idea what the cost of pumping that much water would cost. I assume it depends on what kind of pump you have but on average how much would it cost in fuel to flood around 50 acres? There is a decent size creek/river that boarders the property that I could pump from. I also could pump/siphon from a well that is on a hill about 100 yards away.

kckong wrote:I am considering flooding 50 acres of corn but I have no idea what the cost of pumping that much water would cost. I assume it depends on what kind of pump you have but on average how much would it cost in fuel to flood around 50 acres? There is a decent size creek/river that boarders the property that I could pump from. I also could pump/siphon from a well that is on a hill about 100 yards away.

If you ever decide to pump water on a large scale you need to size you pump and power for the specific job.The performance curve of a pump is usually a fairly small range to achieve the best pump rate and cheapest energy cost.

Broken Paddle wrote:Keep in mind, a pump pushes water more effectively than it will draw water.

Keep your pump as close to the water source as possible.

Depending on what you have for static head, you may have to put in a relay pump to maintain the GPM. of your primary pump.

32.2 ft above water is max for suction (anything above is impossible because of gravity)... mgh little physics 101 haha

This is true, we would test our pumpers, to see that they would draw water @ 28'. The higher you draw, the less GPM you get at the nozzle even less when you figure in friction loss of your supply line. I have forgotten a lot since I took hydraulics & rural water supply courses 30-40 yrs. ago in fire school, it has been 15 or so yrs. since I have used it, but, if I need to dig through the archives, I can make it work, in a hands on situation.

And yes, gravity is NOT always your friend, on VERY rare occasions, it can be your enemy!